Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Monday said Colombo accepted India’s position on the fishermen issue which she had raised with Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasinghe during her just concluded visit to the island nation.

Continued vociferous protests by Congress members deterred Swaraj from making a statement in Rajya Sabha on the Tamil fishermen issue raised by Janata Dal-U’s K C Tyagi during zero hour. Rajya Sabha deputy chairman P J Kurien tried to restore order in the House saying it was “unfair” on the part of the Congress not to allow others to raise their issues.

Later, in the afternoon, Swaraj gave a detailed statement in the Rajya Sabha on the controversial television interview by the Sri Lankan Prime Minister that his Navy could take action against Indian fishermen - “if someone tries to break into my house, I can shoot”.

“When I met him in the afternoon, I took up the matter strongly,” she said.

“I told him that these two cases are totally different,” she added, referring to the Sri Lankan Prime Minister comparing India’s action to detain Italian marines with that of five Indian fishermen who were given death sentence and then pardoned.

“The five Indian fishermen went through the judicial process. But in the Italian marines case, they are not even allowing the judicial process to start,” said Swaraj. She pointed out that executive power can be exercised only when judicial process is complete. “The PM nodded his head in assent and said, ‘I did not know the facts’,” Swaraj told Rajya Sabha about her closed-door meeting on Saturday.

On the other controversial point, she said the PM was reminded that shooting can’t be justified, as Lankan fishermen are also coming and fishing in Indian waters.

“I reminded him that 3 days ago, 19 Sri Lankan fishermen were caught. But, once we came to know, we at once ordered their release by afternoon… On one day, we had zero custody of fishermen and boats of each other’s country,” she said.

Later, during the clarifications asked by the members, several of them asked that Sri Lankan government should give a formal apology.
(With inputs from The New Indian Express)